Agents of Storybrooke
by caskett-case
Summary: Rumbelle/Avengers AU. Agent Belle French is among the new class of SHIELD agents, along with Emma Swan, Mary Margaret Blanchard, and Ruby Lucas (collectively referred to as Fury's Angels). Belle is paired with the feared Agent Robert Gold and works alongside him and Agents Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff.


_A/N: Oh jeez. I've really done it this time. I'm writing my first AU fic. WHAT. Blame Meaghan (dinkleberg-senpai on tumblr and bambi1994 on here) for this idea. It started as a little prompt and then blew up into me wanting to write a full-length fic in about the span of two hours. Also: title credit goes to Meaghan's friend, Ashley, who asked me to give her a shoutout haha. Thank you, Ashley! _

_So yeah, this'll be mostly Rumbelle, with sides of Swanfire and Clintasha, and little bits of Snowing, Pepperony, and Frankenwolf. _

_Disclaimer: I don't own anything in OUAT or the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I think that goes without saying. But now, without further ado, I present to you, Agents of Storybrooke!_

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**Agents of Storybrooke**  
Chapter One

If there was one thing Agent Belle French had learned in her first twenty minutes working for SHIELD, it was "don't piss off Agent Gold." And yet somehow, she had already succeeded in doing so.

Waltzing through a hallway of the Triskelion, SHIELD's Washington DC headquarters, as Director Fury finished up their tour of the facilities, Belle took a corner too tightly and found her body plastered against another before it jumped back and howled.

She had spilled her chai tea all over the body's white dress shirt.

Belle's eyes raked up from the stain and up to the face of the owner of the shirt—a ruggedly handsome, solidly built agent in his mid-40s with a rage in his eyes she knew could belong to only one fabled agent—Agent Gold. She'd heard horror stories of the man's temper among her fellow agents while in training, some fearing him so much as to drill in their heads one simple rule. Don't piss off Agent Gold.

Well, shit.

Belle couldn't speak, could only gape wordlessly, absolutely humiliated, while Gold stared her down. She was going to die within the first day, and at the hands of her own coworkers no less. They probably thought she was fucking working for HYDRA now. Shit, shit, shit…

"Agent French…"

Director Fury's voice snapped her out of her wildly racing thoughts. Belle's head snapped back toward her boss.

"I suppose now's a good of a time as any to introduce you to your new partner. Agent Belle French, meet Agent Robert Gold."

Bloody hell.

Gold scanned his eyes over Belle in appraisal and grumbled in a thick, Scottish brogue.

"I would hope that you don't plan on making a habit of being clumsy, Miss French. Could really cause a problem in the field."

Belle swallowed and gripped the now-sticky (and near empty) Starbucks cup in her hand.

"No sir, not at all," she replied, barely audible.

He sighed and bit back, "Well, there's no need to call me sir. You're my partner now, and I see you as an equal. Agent Gold will suffice just fine for now."

"For now?"

"If they keep you around long enough, you may be privileged enough to call me Robert."

She quirked an eyebrow, a little put off by the comment.

"The hell is that supposed to mean?" she answered, a little more venom to her voice than she meant to.

Gold just scoffed and turned to Fury, saying, "The Little French has some spunk. Quite a spitfire you've picked up, Sir."

Fury just smirked and looked back to Belle.

"I think you two will complement each other quite nicely."

And after one final stare down between Belle and Robert, Fury ushered the young agent along to finish the tour.

He watched her go, annoyed with how the tiny girl had fired back at him. No one did that. Not since his last partner. And that depth of relationship to call him out on his shit had to be earned.

He whirled around in the direction of the elevator and pressed 23, and greeted by a "ding" and the sliding open of the door, he stepped inside and headed up to pay Agent Nolan a visit, making a pit stop at his own office to put on a spare shirt he had laying around.

David Nolan was 32 and had been working with SHIELD for six years. He had been thrust into the business as an employee of Stark Industries and after six months was solicited by Nick Fury to become a part of SHIELD. Proficient in hand-to-hand combat and incredibly skilled with a gun, he had quickly become one of the golden boys of SHIELD, and his main post was currently working for Stark Industries as Head of Security. His fiancé, Mary Margaret Blanchard, would be joining him at Stark Industries as a liaison officer. Nolan was also one of Gold's only close friends.

"Robert," greeted his friend. "What can I do for you?"

"Files on the new agents, please."

Nolan cocked his head at that.

"And since when are you suddenly interested in the new agents?"

"Fury has seemed to find immense pleasure in deciding to assign me a partner," he replied in a clipped tone.

David unlocked a desk drawer and began rifling through manila folders.

"And he assigned you one of Fury's Angels, I see."

_What the hell? _

"Fury's Angels?"

David chuckled as he extracted the first file and laid it on the desktop.

"Yeah, that's the nickname Stark, Potts, and I have given the four new agents. All little spitfires of women, not the least of which being Mary Margaret. All from Storybrooke, too."

"Ah, your fiancé is among the newbies this year?"

David continued to pull files and just smiled.

"We'll be working together at Stark Tower. So we'll see how long it is before we want to kill each other. Here are your files, Gold."

Robert took the four folders and tucked them under his arm, mumbling a "thank you" and heading for the door of Nolan's office until he heard his friend call out once more.

"So who'd be pair you with?"

Gold stopped and turned.

"The French girl."

David shot his friend a huge grin.

"Her and M and friends, and I've met her a few times. She's a feisty one."

"Bloody girl spilled tea on me when Fury introduced her."

His friend let out a snicker and replied, "Alright, well you have fun stalking the newbs. Have fun with French. She's cute, Gold."

Robert only rolled his eyes as he turned and headed back toward the elevator, heading up to floor 30 to his office to sift through the files. He would scan through the first few quickly before reading his new partner's file more in depth.

He started with Mary Margaret's file. She was 28, with a PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Storybrooke in Maine, where her and Nolan had met as undergrads. She would be starting as a liaison officer between SHIELD and the Research and Development sector of Stark Industries. She was also trained in archery and kickboxing.

Next was Ruby Lucas, a 23 year old Bachelor of Science in Biology from Storybrooke. Ruby had grown up raised by her grandmother and had worked at her diner, appropriately named Granny's, since she was 16 and used it to pay her way through school with dreams of becoming an apprentice of Bruce Banner. Agent Lucas would start as an associate in his lab working on research that Banner and Doctor Victor Whale, a specialist in genetics, were working on.

Tossing the second file aside, he grabbed for the third one, becoming increasingly anxious to find out about Agent French. He began to scan over the next one quickly.

Agent Emma Swan…Age 25… Recommended by…

Gold's heart skipped a beat as his eyes fixed on a name. _Recommended by: Neal Cassidy._

Neal Cassidy. Gold's former partner. The last partner that he had until seven years ago when he went solo and began to work only with Agents Barton and Romanoff when necessary, while Cassidy moved to SHIELD's consulting department. The partner that he thought about every single day and hadn't heard from in years. Gold read on. Emma Swan was also a resident of Storybrooke, Maine, (_Did SHIELD have a fucking agent farm there or something?_) and had been discovered a year ago by Cassidy when she had attempted to break into his apartment. Rather than have her apprehended, Gold surmised that the two must have bonded over similar histories of starting out as thieves, leading to Neal offering her a second chance.

Interesting.

Gold shook off the feeling of dread that came over him as he thought of his former partner—If Swan was around, then what if Cassidy started tailing her too? Once the best of friends, he wasn't sure where they stood with each other now—hadn't been for a long time. Robert just knew he still felt a pang of guilt every day ever since the botched New York job seven years ago.

He sighed as a dull ache surged through his knee, as if the guilt needed a physical manifestation. He rubbed his hand over the scar and set the file aside, reaching for his new partner's, and he began to piece together the little he already knew about the French girl and what the file had to offer.

Belle French was 26 years old, born in Melbourne, Australia, where she lived until she was 15, when her father, Moe French, had been recruited by SHIELD as an inventor and engineer, setting up shop in the sleepy little town of Storybrooke, Maine, where he and his cohorts were free to work under the supervision of Storybrooke mayor (and SHIELD Deputy Director) Regina Mills. Belle spent her adolescence in her father's world, traveling to SHIELD headquarters all over the country and being dubbed "the little French" by the agents. With an IQ of 143 and growing up becoming skilled in the Australian martial art of Zen Do Kai—a mixture of boxing, judo, karate, and other disciplines—the little French had been groomed to be an agent of SHIELD for years. Moe French prided his daughter as a renaissance woman, and she held a Master of Arts degree in English Literature and Creative Writing from Storybrooke. Gold had never met Belle prior to their chai tea debacle about an hour prior, but the few times he had seen her at one of the bases with Moe, she had had her nose in a book or a pen in her hand.

Gold reached the last line of the file:

_Agent French will be partnered with Agent Robert Gold in the black-ops unit with Strike Team Delta (Agents Natasha Romanoff and Clinton Barton). _

He let out a sigh as he closed the folder and thought of the interaction with French once again. He sincerely hoped that her clumsiness today would not become a habit.

The last thing he needed was another Neal Cassidy situation.

* * *

Belle had settled into her Georgetown apartment with Ruby and Emma last week, and the three had since been preparing for their first days of training at SHIELD. The three women had set ten alarms between them, all ridiculously paranoid that they would oversleep (especially since it was a bad habit of Ruby's). So at 5:00 AM, the first three alarms sounded through the apartment, a cacophony of "Black Widow" by Iggy Azalea (Belle's alarm), "This is War" by 30 Seconds to Mars (Emma's), and "Lonely Boy" by the Black Keys (Ruby's).

They were ready and over to Triskelion by 6:45, and training would begin at 7. And despite already being so familiar with the facilities and the agents, Belle's stomach was rolling. Because she had to face Agent Gold again, and she was about 90% sure he would kill her, regardless of how well-liked "the little French" was already.

"Agent French," she heard a deep, Scottish voice come from behind and whirled around to find Agent Gold in the lobby.

"Agent Gold," she responded, nodding. "I apologize again for spilling on you yesterday."

"No matter, dearie. Just don't let it happen again."

Again, she nodded, her confidence slipping at his gruffness and the stares they were receiving from the other agents. Belle knew that Gold hadn't had a partner in seven years, though she had not been privy to the details of why. Apparently their partnership now made for big news around the watercooler.

Whether she liked it or not (and she didn't), she would never be able to lay low at SHIELD. There would always be a target on her back. Fury, her father, and now Gold, probably, expected something above what the other new agents had to offer. She had been trained for this position since she was a teenager, and the pressure and expectation were now higher than ever. She was more than capable, this she knew. But Belle was still only human, and nearly knocking her new partner over and spilling a latte on him the day before had certainly proven that.

"Agent French," Gold barked at her, and she realized that she had zoned out.

"I'm sorry," she replied, shaking her head. "I was a million miles away. What did you say?"

He just glared at her coldly.

"I said, we should head to Briefing Room B. That's where your orientation will begin. Try to keep up, will you?"

He didn't wait for a response and began walking in the direction of the briefing room.

She had been here fifteen minutes and it was already shaping up to be the longest day of Belle's life.

* * *

_Ahhhhh, and there's chapter one, folks! So disclaimer: I am not taking the events of Captain America 2 into account, and honestly, I'm just taking lots of liberty in the MCU because I can say that I don't know it half as well as I know the OUAT characters. I just know it well enough that I feel like I can write it haha. So try not to hate me too much for diverging (but well… its an AU fic. That's kind of the point, I suppose.) Also, all the songs I used for the girls are songs I rotate between to wake up to in the morning, and that's why I used them haha. _

_Anyway, next chapter we will see a little more Belle/Gold interaction, be introduced to Clint and Natasha, and we'll have some Fury's Angels bonding. Yay! I'm having a lot of fun with this already. _

_Reviews, etc are much appreciated. _

___And one more thing: I have NOT forgotten about Poison and Wine. Trust me... I have not forgotten. I think about it every day and how badly I feel for not updating it. Haha. I am in the process of writing the next chapter. I can tell you that much. Don't give up on me quite yet. :) _

___Lemme know what you think! _


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